Summary

Venice—After a year and a half of government by nonpartisan “technocrats,” Italian voters last month restored politicians to center stage. Last week, the new government announced that it would form a “superministry” responsible for research and education, and named lawyer Luigi Berlinguer, the former rector of Siena University, to head it. Berlinguer, who has briefly held the post of research minister before, has some tough tasks ahead: increasing funding, reforming the discredited university appointments system, and rescuing the troubled Italian Space Agency.